Butterscotch banana loaf cake

Several nights ago I found myself watching ‘Louie’, Louis CK’s show. It was the one where he calls the grocers and orders, among other items, 6 bananas that are misheard as 60 hence he ends up with a lot of bananas. Totally not the point of the show but it got me thinking what I’d do had a large bunch of bananas landed in my kitchen. Little did I know what the cosmos had planned.

For several days now a winter/ tropical storm is bringing out my crave for winter foods and so far soups, casseroles, hot pots and baked apple cakes have already made an appearance in the kitchen and on my plate. The next morning I headed to the farmers market and without a banana thought in my head. Thats not strictly true, secretly I was hoping to find a rare bunch of ripe bananas among the green bunches always sold and as luck would have it I passed by a glowing stand radiating with bright yellow, some would say over ripe bananas past their best days. Perfect for baking, I thought.

At half the price I bought the lot and found myself standing in the kitchen surrounded with quite a few bananas. Whether it was a hunch, intuition, quantum physics or simply a coincidence, I had prepared in advance and had given the subject a little thought. So some I mashed, zip locked and froze for future use, some have now been transformed into a jam, now jarred, and some ended up in a Butterscotch banana cake that I like to refer to as ‘how I like to start the weekend’ cake.

The recipe for this cake was taken from Dan Lepard's latest cookbook.

A food columnist on The Guardian’s food channel, his latest cookbook arrived at my doorstep earlier this week and it’s a hefty one. With over 500 pages featuring hundreds of recipes from sweet to savoury, breads, cakes, tarts, candies and desserts it took me several hours to go over it and dress it up with technicolor ribbons marking all the ‘must bake’ recipes.

Turns out over- ripe bananas was just the place to start. And you never know which bananas tomorrow will bring.

Butterscotch banana loaf cake

Adapted from ‘Short & sweet: The best of home baking',

by Dan Lepard.

This cake begins caramelizing bananas before adding the sticky mixture to the batter. The result is a moist spicy banana toffee loaf that’s light and mildly sweet and pairs wonderfully with a cup of coffee, dunked in a bowl of custard or served with a dollop of sour cream.

For the butterscotch bananas:

2/3 caster sugar

50 ml water

2 bananas, sliced thickly

1-2 tbs unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract or ½ vanilla stick, deseeded

a pinch of sea salt

for the cake:

½ cup caster sugar

¾ cup virgin coconut oil (or any other neutral flavoured oil)

3 medium eggs

50 g plain yogurt

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup rye flour (of wholemeal/ spelt)

2 tsp of mixed spice ( I prepared a mixture freshly ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, Kampot and Melegueta pepper)

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1. For the butterscotch bananas: pour the sugar and water in a large frying pan and bring to a boil. Continue to cook until the liquid turns to a rich caramel colour. Reduce the heat and add the bananas, butter and vanilla. Cook the bananas in the sauce until they’ve softened. Sprinkle the sea salt then set aside and allow to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
3. In a bowl, sift the flour, rye flour, mixed spice, baking powder and baking soda.
4. In a separate large bowl mix the sugar, oil and eggs to a thick, yellow batter.
5. Add the caramelized bananas and yogurt and mix well.
6. Fold the flour mixture into the batter, not too much, just until incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 40 minutes. The cake is ready when it turns a tanned caramel colour and a skewer inserted into it comes out clean.
8. Release the cake from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Salted Caramel Matzoh Crunch with Chocolate

Passover is almost here. It feels it. The weather is changing and unpredictable, the clocks have been reset for summer time and the air has a festive flair to it.

It is a time for Matzo and Matzo meal cakes, cookies, fritters and snacks. Surprisingly, few snacks are on offer during this period that are both made of matzo meal and taste good. Those wishing to enjoy a decent sweet snack tend to use other ingredients over matzo as base such as marzipan, nuts or chocolate.

I think I know why. I think its about nostalgia. Once a year, during Passover, unidentified cookies appear on supermarket shelves. They bear strange name and are manufactured by unknown companies. This happens every year. The coconut and peanut cookies taste as they did when I was growing up. They are the taste of Passover, along with the Gefilte fish, and it wouldnt be one without them.

However, be that as it may and with the utmost respect for nostalgia, I cannot put them in my mouth. They taste awful.

This is a recipe written by Marcy Goldman over 20 years ago which I found about a year ago and put a pin in it, until now. It was worth the wait.

This is an insanely indulgent confectionery without the faintest flavor of nostalgia despite the fact Matzo spread with chocolate is what the Passovers of my childhood tasted of.

It has everything one can wish for: salted butter caramel, chocolate and the option to creatively customize it to a sin of your liking. Oh, and its dead easy to make.

Happy holidays.

Caramelized Matzoh Crunch with Chocolate

Recipe adapted from here

4 to 6 sheets of matzoh


200 Salted butter, cut into chunks


1 cup (firmly-packed) light brown sugar


1 cup dark chocolate (70%cocoa), coarsely chopped

Topping of your choice,

(I used

Roasted pumpkin seeds

Cinnamon sugar )

Line a baking tray completely with foil making sure it goes up the sides. Preheat the oven to 175°C degrees.

Line the bottom of the sheet completely with matzoh, breaking extra pieces as necessary to fill in any spaces.

In a medium-sized heavy duty saucepan, combine the butter and sugar, and cook over medium heat until the butter begins to boil.

Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and pour over matzo, spreading with a heatproof utensil.

Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the syrup darkens and gets thick.

While it's baking, make sure it's not burning. If so, reduce the heat.

Remove from oven and immediately cover with chocolate chunks. Let stand 5 minutes, and then spread smooth with an offset spatula.

Now comes the fun creative part.

You can sprinkle with a mixture of seeds and nuts, I sprinkled a handful of roasted pumpkin seeds, but sunflower seeds, sesame, walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds will also work. You can add raisins or candied orange peel for a fruit & nut combo or.

Another option is to omit the dark chocolate altogether replace it with white chocolate and sprinkle with roasted coconut flakes, or simply have it with the salted caramel.

Let cool completely in the refrigerator, then break into pieces and store in an airtight container until ready to eat.